Meaning & Origins

Transferred use of the surname, derived from a Norman French occupational term that originally denoted someone who looked after horses, ultimately from Germanic marah ‘horse’ + scalc ‘servant’. By the time it became fixed as a surname it had the meaning ‘shoeing smith’ later it came to denote an official whose duties were to a large extent ceremonial. The surname is pronounced the same as the Latin name Martial (from Latin Mars, genitive Martis; compare Martin). This may have contributed something to its use as a given name.